THE NEXT DAY

Karen Grant's secret service car pulled into the underground parking lot for the White House. She scrolled through her phone nervously, not actually doing anything. As much as she denied it, she was scared to go see her dad. She knew that he would not be pleased at all that she got her security to let her out of school early, and that she spent the extra day with Olivia. Accompanied by her guys, she took the elevator up and walked down the halls of the White House to her room, where her men put her bags down for her. She thanked them and dismissed them. Karen's phone buzzed. It was a text from Olivia.

You have nothing to hide. Don't let him push you around. It's not like you did anything wrong :)

Karen grinned, feeling immensely grateful for the friendship that Olivia had offered her. Taking deep breaths she walked to her dad's office, where his secretary, Charlotte, informed her that her dad was in a meeting.

"I'll let him know that you're here. I'm sure he'll want to see you," said Charlotte, looking the Grant child over. Karen snorted. He most definitely wants to see me, she thought to herself.

"Okay, well, I'll wait for him inside," she said, letting herself in and slamming the door before Charlotte could protest.

Karen wandered over to his dad's desk. Any pictures that there had once been of her mom had been taken down, and now his window ledge was adorned with pictures of her, Gerry and Teddy. Karen smiled to herself, seeing that her dad had finally updated her school photo that she had been begging him to change. The one before the updated picture was horrible and years old. Seeing nothing else of interest on top of his desk, she occupied herself by sitting in his chair and searching through his drawers. She didn't find anything worth a second glance until she reached his top drawer which contained a thin box full of pictures of him and Olivia. Ones from when they first met, working together on the trail, up until recently, them being seen together at parties and on red carpets. They both looked happy and engaged with one another up until the most recent pictures, where they looked posed and slightly sad. Karen was still looking through the photos when her dad walked into the oval.

"Karen?" She jumped in her seat.

"Oh, hi dad. Charlotte said that you were in a meeting so I figured…"

"That you'd make yourself at home," Fitz sighed. "Some of that is classified information—"

"That's not what I was looking at," said Karen, hastily shoving the pictures into the drawers and closing them.

"Yeah, I can see that." There was an awkward pause. "Come here," Fitz finally said. "I haven't seen you in a long time." Whose fault is that? Karen thought to herself, but obliged and gave her father a hug.

"Let's talk," he said, breaking the hug.

—

AT THAT SAME TIME

Huck, Marcus, and Quinn were all sitting at the conference table working. Marcus finally broke the silence.

"So when did Liv say she was going to get here?"

"In an hour," responded Huck. The three fell back into a silence. After a while it was broken again by the same person.

"Are we sure there are no clients today?"

"Nope," said Quinn, continuing to type on her keyboard.

"It just seems weird, not having clients. What are we even supposed to be finding about Liv's dad?"

"You ask a lot of questions, newbie. What did I say about that?" said Quinn, not looking up from her computer screen.

"Yeah, yeah, don't ask questions, over a cliff, blah blah. But I don't understand, why are taking so much time on Liv's dad when he isn't even a real concern right now."

"Rowan is always a concern. He's Command. There are going to be times, times that seem insignificant and random and have no meaning, but there are going to be times when we drop all of our work and search for Command, check up on him. As long as we do that, we can keep gladiating. Otherwise, Liv gets nervous. She starts going into bad places, shutting us out. And when she shuts us out we don't know what Command is up to. So if Liv asks you to keep a watch on Command, you keep a watch on Command," said Huck.

"But isn't she shutting us out now? Isn't she in a bad place now?"

"Yeah. But this one isn't about Command. We can't fix this one. This time it's on her," said Huck. He and Quinn shared a glance.

"It's about the President, right?"

"One thing that you will learn, Marcus, is that Liv and the President are very on and off. They have put down their thing and picked it back up so many times… they always make mistakes and they always forgive each other and then they go and make mistakes again," Quinn stated.

"But this time…?" Marcus asked.

"This time the President isn't going to forgive her. And he doesn't even know what she has done wrong yet," said Huck. Quinn looked at him, wanting to know what only he, Abby, and Olivia knew about.

—

TWO HOURS LATER

"I'm so pissed at you," said Abby coming into Olivia's room and sitting on her bed.

"Abby?" Olivia called from the shower.

"Who else?" asked Abby, who had let herself in with a key.

"Don't you have work?" Olivia yelled at her.

"Don't you have work? Or are you going on another date with Karen?" snapped Abby. She heard the shower turn off. Two minutes later Olivia stepped out in a bathrobe.

"Why are you mad at me?" questioned Olivia.

"Why am I mad at you? Why am I mad at you?"

"Karen Grant is non of your concern. He can be mad at me. If he has a problem with me spending one day with his daughter than that's a conversation that he needs to have with me."

"And what a lovely conversation that would be," Abby muttered under her breath.

"But you, why are you so mad?" Olivia continued, ignoring her friend's previous comment. "I don't think I've done anything to offend you. Unless you're jealous of a seventeen year old girl, but I don't think you would ever fall that low. And just for the record, you have nothing to be jealous of," said Olivia, finished getting dressed and finally looking Abby in the eye. She gave her a small smile.

"I know. I honestly don't know why I'm pissed at you. I feel like it's my job requirement to be angry at you all the time. Like, that was a given when I took this job," confessed Abby. Olivia laughed.

"I can't argue with that."

"So correction: He's pissed." Abby gave Olivia a look. She sighed.

"I literally spent one afternoon with his daughter. I bought her lunch. She told me about her small, insignificant, high school problems and made me care about her. It's stupid right? But… she needs a friend. And I'm going to be that friend weather or not Fitz likes it—" Olivia was interrupted by a knocking on the door.

"Who the hell is that?" asked Abby.

"I don't know," said Olivia.

—

AT THAT SAME TIME

Fitz walked into Karen's room a couple hours after their short and awkward conversation had ended.

"Hey," he said, standing in the doorframe.

"Hi, sorry," she said, jumping up from her bed and putting her laptop down. "I'll be ready in literally ten minutes—"

"No, don't worry, we still have an hour before the interview. I just wanted to… I feel like we haven't really talked."

Karen looked up at him. "You mean our conversation hasn't come to the topic of your mistress yet?" she asked bluntly. Fitz flinched at the word 'mistress.'

"Don't call Olivia that, and that's not what I meant. Kare, you haven't talked to me yet. It's just me asking you questions and you answering with a yes or no. What's going on?"

"'Don't call Olivia that?' Huh," said Karen.

"What?"

"Nothing it's just… nothing. She's my friend dad."

"No, she's not."

"Yes, she is. You have no idea what you're talking about. We're friends. Why haven't I been talking to you? I don't need to, because I got it all off my chest yesterday."

"When you went on your little afternoon date with Liv?"

"Yeah. And guess what? She listened. Funny, right? She was the last person you or I would expect to hear out my petty high school, college application, mean girls problems. But she listened, and actually seemed to care. And, yeah, maybe she's in such a bad place that she has sunk this low to actually talk to me, but it is what it is. And let's remember, you are the one who has put her in such a bad place."

"Don't act as if you know about us, Karen! What goes on with me and Liv… you have no idea what you are talking about. She was the one who broke it up with me, who put herself in such a bad state."

"You locked her up in here!"

"That's what she told you?" Fitz ran his fingers through his hair, shaking his head.

"She didn't have to tell me! I know what it's like, remember? I'm the President's freaking daughter! Why do you think me and Gerry chose to go to boarding school? We knew that it would be living hell to be here. Because that's what this is; hell. This place, your job—and don't get me wrong, you're pretty decent at your job from what I've heard. But you can't just lock people up in here to solve your problems, dad," Karen yelled. She then went into a softer tone. "I know that you have good intentions. I know that you love her, and me, and Teddy. But…"

"I can't keep you guys safe," Fitz said, defeated. "Gerry is dead because I couldn't keep him safe. Liv has been in more danger than you could ever imagine, and every day I'm scared for you and Teddy. And I don't know what to do. You and your younger brother are everything to me, and… so is she."

"I know that dad. I know." Fitz sat down next to his daughter on her bed. She rested her shoulder on his.

"For the record, Liv and I are friends, just to be clear," Karen said. Fitz smiled.

—

AT THAT SAME TIME

"Can you grab the door? I'm not finished straightening my hair," said Liv, addressing Abby. She sighed and reluctantly got up and walked to the door. Abby swung the door open.

"What the hell are you doing here?" asked Abby, in shock, not thinking about who she was addressing.

"Excuse me?" asked Mellie Grant, standing in the doorway of Olivia's apartment.

"Oh my God. I'm sorry, Senator Grant. Just… surprised," Abby said, collecting herself.

"I need to speak with Olivia. Is she here?"

"Yeah, but she's busy."

"I'll wait," said Mellie. Abby was still standing in front of her. "Well, can I come in?"

"Um… okay," Abby said nervously, stepping aside. Mellie walked into Olivia's apartment, looking around.

"It's cute. Very Liv," said Mellie.

"Yeah, I'll just… I'll tell Liv you're here."

"You do that," said Mellie with a smile, taking a seat on Olivia's couch. "Please tell her it's important."